


An Ounce of Prevention

by karrenia_rune



Category: Sliders, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: crossovers100, Gen, One Shot, repost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 11:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1939572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The timer device that the Sliders use to travel between dimensions, and while this is not new to them, the quick-fix that Quinn and Professor Arturo<br/>managed to make right before this current jump lands them in a world none of them ever expected.  Set around the time when Carson synthesized a Wraith "enyzyme.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Ounce of Prevention

Disclaimer. Stargate: Atlantis and all of its characters, events, devices, and ships belong to their respective creators and producers, and are not mine. The same applies to the Sliders series. Note: The story references events from the current 2nd season of Atlantis and the 1st season of Sliders.

"An Ounce of Prevention by Karrenia

 

Rodney hated any feeling remotely associated with the loss of control. In his mind, that is the only reason why the drug addiction forced upon him by Aiden Ford is so distasteful. The fact that the drug in question is a distilled version of the Wraith enzyme made for human use, like a steroid, really does not help matters.

He could not imagine living a life where withdrawal symptoms become so severe that he will reach the point of bouncing off the walls, or worse, climbing them.  
He should be putting his intelligence to good use, helping the team to get a Wraith glider engines online and flight worthy. 

Rodney lay on his back on his hard bunk staring up at the ceiling unable to sleep because that restless mind of his persists in replaying the entire episode over and over in his mind. He tells himself that Dr. Carson Beckett knew more about the enzyme than even the insane Ford and his one-man crusade to stop the Wraith. 

He kept telling himself it is because of Colonel Sheppard's efforts to intervene on his behalf that his dosage of the enzyme is far less than that of Ronon or Teyla's.  
Everything will work out for the best, that all he has to do is find a positive somewhere in this equation. Most of the time applying this method of calming his anxiety works when he is working on physics or engineering equation. However this method does not always work when it comes to a personal problem or a social situation.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, Rodney arose from his bunk and went over to the computer monitor to check on where Sheppard might be. It only partially registered that the digital readout on his chronometer glows a steady, deep green 2 am. 

Rodney wavered between getting up and pacing back and forth in the space that separated his bed from the small chest of drawers that holds his clothes, and on tops the few personal items he brought with him to Atlantis side of the Stargate.

The funny dry sensation on the roof of his mouth tastes much like the bag of cotton balls he keeps in the drawer of his end table and he reaches for the thermos of water sitting on the end table. He filled a Styrofoam cup with water and gulped it down trying to avoid darting a darting a glance at the tiny silver cylinder stuffed into the far crevice where the table meets the wall.  
Rodney finished off all the water and staggered back over to his bed, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hits the pillow.  
***  
Meanwhile in another part of the Pegasus Base Colonel John Sheppard grumbles about why is it necessary for 'some' people meaning Teyla and Ronon to pick ungodly early hours for training sessions. 

He rubbed his eye sockets with the backs of his hands to rid them of the grit of broken slumber as he walked down the hallway. Upon arriving at the lift that will take him to the training room he punched the up button and entered the lift, and then pulled the door closed.  
Sheppard refused to succumb to the urge to yawn and succumb to his fatigue, determined not to let his irritation show, or to let them use that to their advantage when they cross staves.

Teyla and Ronon were at it already when Sheppard arrived and even though the metal bulkheads he could hear the audible thudding and clacking of wooden weapons. Shrugging off the jacket of his uniform Sheppard reached for his pair of the practice weapons; clearing his throat, awaiting a lull to make his presence known.

"Sorry I'm late for the party," Sheppard says, "but do you mind if I step in?"

"Colonel Sheppard," Ronon grunted, "We've been expecting you."

"Well then, let's get it on."

"On where?" Teyla asks, arching one elegant brown eyebrow.

"Never mind," Sheppard shrugs, raising his wooden quarterstaff and waggles it around, "It's an old Earth expression. I'll explain it to you later if you want."

***  
Enter the Sliders

Mallory Quinn punched up the codes to activate the wormhole that will lead to yet another alternate reality. He has done this so many times since he left home that it has become almost a routine. The theoretical physicist side of his nature automatically calculates the precise mathematical equations making such a phenomenon possible. However, the devil-may-care adventurer side of his nature is eager to explore their next destination.

 

His friends and fellow travelers: Professor Maximillian Arturo, Rembrandt "Remy" Brown, and Wade Welles have exhausted the possibilities of their current whereabouts and are as anxious to be gone as he is.  
Jumping through the artificial wormhole thus created by Quinn's handheld device is much like jumping into the crest of an oncoming gigantic ocean wave and then submerging. The rush is nothing like he has ever experienced before and he knows on both a personal and instinctual level that his friends feel something similar in their own way. Otherwise, they would not have survived this long sliding from one alternate reality to the next, or stuck with him through both triumphs and disasters.

As they emerge on the other side of the wormhole Quinn stepped out into the middle of a room the decor of which reminds him of a Japanese dojo complete with a screen room divider made out of wicker. Contact with the hard wooden floor giving his left knee a nasty knock that he feels even through the fabric of his denim jeans.  
Professor Arturo is the next to emerge, all but falling bodily on top of Quinn's kneeling form; followed closely by Remy and Wade. Untangling from each other with more than a little effort Quinn attempted to get his bearings by pulling out his handheld from his pocket. 

He hoped that his fall did not damage the equipment. A few seconds to examine it, with the Professor looking over his shoulder is enough to satisfy Quinn on that score at least. Now all he has to figure out is where and when, and what their next course of action should be."

"Well, well, this certainly is a nice kettle of fish ya'all have gotten us into again," Remy stated, glancing around at the room, his distinct accent rumbling through the room. "Don't suppose you know where we are this time, boss?"

"I'm working on it," Remy," Quinn replied.

"Not that I'm telling you how to do your job," Remy added, glancing around, noting the puzzled looks on the faces of the three people in the room are rapidly turning to curiosity and then suspicion. "But could you work faster, please?"

"Quinn," Professor Arturo added, "We seem to not have the leisure to wait around why you fumble with your toy. It would behoove you to work with more speed for it appears that time is of the essence. Arturo found himself staring into the face of a tall dark-skinned woman, poking the sharpened end of a quarter-staff into his left flank. Wade stood beside him, trying to stare the other woman down.

Quinn looked up from his calculations when he feels an audible thunk of a wooden slat clack against the side of his head. He looks up to see a very tall man, with dreadlocks threaded through his long black hair and a stern warning look in his dark eyes. All in all; it made for a rather intimidating scene. Quinn scrambled away on his knees and with a glance at his friends, he rose quickly to his feet, gesturing for the others to do likewise.

"Who are you and what is your business here?" Ronon demanded.

"Hey, no fair stealing my thunder," Sheppard said. "That was supposed to be my line."

"This is a serious situation, Colonel Sheppard, and despite the late hour, these intruders must be dealt with accordingly," Ronon."

"First things first, Ronon. We question them and then if the situation warrants we'll report them to Dr. Weir or security, whichever comes first."

"Colonel?" Quinn echoed, "Of what country's military and or government are you a part of?

"Yes, in the United States Army," replied Colonel John Sheppard, "And who might you be?"

"I guess we'd better dispense with the formal introductions before this goes much further, I'm Mallory Quinn, these are my friends, Professor Arturo, Rembrandt Brown, and Wade Welles. We've been away on a sabbatical for a while, so we're a little out of the loop about current events? Where are we?”

"You're civilians aren't you?”  
Seeing Quinn nod, Sheppard added: "Which means that you've compromised a government facility, and I can't afford the security risk until I've asked you a few more questions and then answered any you may have."

"Most likely they are Genni spies, although, "Ronon tilted his head to one side and thought the matter through, "that explanation does not take into account why they would have appeared here in the training room instead of the gate room without setting of the security alarms."

"Ronon, not now. This trip you say you're on, what kind of research are you conducting, and is there some kind of educational or government organization that sponsors it?"

"Ah, theoretical physics," Quinn muttered. "And we're privately funded through Professor Arturo's estate."

"More to the point, how did you manage to get into the base in the first place," Teyla added.

"That, Madame, is not as easily explained away. I feel a bit parched, might I ask for a glass of water for myself and my comrades?"

Teyla nodded, and with her wooden staff dangling from one hand she went over to a side cabinet and filled two plastic cups with water from the thermos, and then returned with them to hand them to the intruders. Seeing that if they couldn't answer any questions put to them the matter would take that much longer to resolve.

"Have you heard of the Genni?" Ronin bluntly asked, in an attempt to confirm his suspicions.

"The what?" Wade asked. "Never heard of them before."

"How about the Wraith?" Sheppard asked, darting a look of reproach at Ronon.

"No, not those either." Quinn sighed, wondering how much more of this they would have to take.

"Well, wherever they come from, it's getting late and we won't get to the bottom of this tonight, go on to bed, Teyla, Ronon. That's an order. In the meantime, I'll escort our guests to temporary holding quarters until 0800 hours and then we'll get Dr. Beckett and Dr. Weir apprised of the situation."

"What if we don't want to go?" Quinn asked.

"Tough, you’re not being given a choice". Sheppard grinned, “You see, this my base, so my rules, get the picture?"

"Yeah, we got it," Remy replied.  
******  
The Infirmary, 0700 hours, the next morning

With the sleeves of his white lab coat rolled up Doctor Carson Beckett prepared the syringes alongside his assistant and issued orders on the proper mixture for each of his new patients awaiting their turns on the observation beds. Colonel Sheppard had brought them about half an hour earlier with instructions that they each be tested for any traces of the Wraith enzyme or other potential biohazards. Also, he had been given to understand that they would not be harmed or mistreated in any way, given that were intruders and less than forthcoming about the circumstances of how they managed to get inside of the Pegasus base. So far, the threat appeared rather mild.

"I'll be a monkey's uncle," Beckett whistled.

"What are you talking about," Wade asked, curious at the tone of the doctor's voice and the puzzled look on his face.

"I'll not be lying to ye if I didn't tell you straight away that even I am amazed by the results of the blood work we have on ye all." Beckett nodded.

"Is something wrong?" Remy asked.

"Nothing, nothing wrong, and I will rule out any medical danger the five of you might pose to base personnel and civilians stationed her, so ye needn't worry about that."

'If it's all the same to you, Doc, " Wade said, 'but that does not reassure me a whole lot."

"I can't tell you everything, you understand, but we've got a medical situation on our hands that until recently has pretty much confounded both our medical and scientific staff." Beckett paused to consider how exactly and whether or not he should mention anything about the Wraith or Lieutenant Aiden Ford and considered it better not to say anything about them without approval or further information on his current 'guests'.  
Instead, he said: "We're dealing with a hostile threat. Certain members of our front field teams have been subjected to an enzyme with the equivalent properties of an amphetamine.

"A drug addiction." Remy shook his head. "I fail to see what that has anything to do with us or whatever results you got out of our blood work."

"You see, while I don't know where you came from, somewhere along the way I believe you may have picked up the necessary white blood platelets that will help me synthesize an antidote to the effects the enzyme has on our people."

"Great, just great," Quinn muttered.

"I don't understand why this does not come as good news. It means I can help our people and you folks will be released into better quarters than a holding area," Beckett explained.

"Oh joy," Remy replied.  
***

Meanwhile in her office Doctor. Elizabeth Weir considered the contents and the implications of the preliminary report submitted by Colonel Sheppard's, Ronon and Teyla's initial encounter and questioning of the five intruders.

She considered the matter while she sat behind her desk with her elbows on resting on the surface, the fingers of both hands laced together.  
The fact that the small group did not come through the Pegasus base side of the Star Gate was enough to be concerned about.  
Added to that unwelcome fact was that none of them had any knowledge of any known alien races, hostile or otherwise, more or less put them five strangers into a category bordering on unknown and what the hell do we do with them?

Weir unlaced her fingers and leaned back in her chair. Standing up she gathered up the report and stuffed it back inside the folder, deciding that she would go to the medical lab and see for herself what was happening, by now Dr. Carson Beckett should have completed his medical exams of the intruders. Will it work?  
**  
Wade did not know what to make of this place; sure it is filled with military personnel but it is far different than of the parallel worlds that she has had firsthand experience with; she can see swatches of colored fabric adorning the uniforms and medical garb of the staff in the infirmary; the fact that they represent countries off from the United States, Canada, and several European countries. Most likely it means that a mission of some kind is being conducted by all different citizens of the globe. 

By all indications one in mutual cooperation. She can't recognize the uniforms either, and they, with some degree, have not been exactly forthcoming about the nature of that mission. She doesn't know exactly how to feel about this, so she alternates between anxiety, anger at the confinement, and the urge to get up and do something about it, or at least yell very loudly at some in a position of authority. If it accomplishes nothing else of us it will at least relieve some of her building tension. 

Wade glanced around at her fellow Sliders. 

Quinn was angry, Professor Maximillian Arturo is genuinely curious and has that familiar gaze, which means that he has found something intriguing, and Remy just looks tired.  
They were given glasses of water to quench their thirst and some beef jerky, so these folks weren't totally uncaring of them, but Wade just wanted to get this present ordeal over with as quickly as possible.

"Hello, allow me to introduce myself. I am Doctor Elizabeth Weir, and I have the honor of being in charge around here."

"At least, some with authority," Quinn muttered, standing up and approaching here.

"Look, we've been questioned, confined, and then poked and prodded," Quinn added. "I don't mind the questions, I do mind when my people mess with my friends and don't give me any good reasons as to why."

"Calm down, Quinn, acting angry and demanding will not serve us very well, I imagine," Arturo mildly said.

 

"I don't see what all the fuss is about, personally," McKay added, "I was told this was urgent and that Teyla, Ronon, yours truly and Colonel Sheppard all had to be present."

"The fuss, Rodney, is that thanks to our five new friends, I think I may have synthesized a blood antidote to the Wraith enzyme," Beckett replied, not in the least bothered by McKay's cynical tone.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Rodney exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how long we've been working on that or just how astronomical the odds are that anyone could unlock the genetic codes to even come close to something like that?"

"He is very much aware of the difficulties, Rodney," Colonel Sheppard said.

"My mouth tastes like I swallowed cotton balls," Rodney muttered. "You rousted me out of bed for this?"

"Stop complaining; that's an order."

"I think we should give the doctor the benefit of the doubt," Teyla added.

"I agree," Ronon nodded.

"What if it doesn't work? Have you tested it? Dr. Weir asked.

"I don't know what you're all so hot and bothered about it," Remy interrupted, "it works or it doesn't, leastways you get us out of ya'all's hair, and we'll be on our merry way."

"We didn't come here to make any trouble, and if you find something in our blood that helps, fine and dandy, but we're just passing through trying to get home," Quinn said.

"We understand your situation, and once we get through this, I will personally see to it that we find a way to help you reach your home," Weir said.

Rodney was torn about whether or not is a good idea to volunteer to take the first shot of the blood serum.  
A part of him he wished for more than anything to be rid of the addiction; one the other hand he is sure that he can trust this cure Beckett and his staff had developed. It is not because that the cure came from five strangers he barely had time to learn their names; it’s more of a delicate matter. 

He rolled up his sleeve and squirmed around to get a more comfortable position on the exam table while he waited for the effect of the antidote to take effect. Rodney thought that the so-called 'cure' will most likely turn out to be worse than the disease, or the addiction.

On similar exam tables, Teyla, Ronon and John Sheppard all waited for the results of the experiment. 

 

Aftermath

"I'm worried about McKay, you know how he feels about both the Wraith and the Ford, ever since the incident with the enzyme," Weir said.

"I understand, Ma'am," Colonel John Sheppard replied, 'but McKay's a big boy, and whether he likes it or not he's going have to buck it and take the treatment prescribed by the good doctor."

"The fact that a treatment for the addiction caused by the Wraith enzyme adapted for human use came from the blood serum from five strangers doesn't bother you?"

'Honestly, " Sheppard replied, "it does just a little bit, but right about I think beggars can't afford to be choosy when it comes to finding a cure." He shrugged. As far as I can tell our guests are not entirely thrilled with the situation either."

"Can you really blame them?" Teyla said.

"They helped us," Weir smiled. "I think it’s more than fair repayment of that debt to talk to them and at least find them better accommodations."

"You mean we're getting sprung, Ma'am?" Remy smiled his most winning and charming smile at the attractive auburn-haired woman.

"Yes, Mr. Brown, we are hereby springing you." Weir smiled.  
****  
At precisely 0900 hours the following morning, the Sliders wake up to a dismaying stumbling block to their plans of a quick way home. 

“The timer‘s malfunctioning,” Quinn stated.

"Which means that will be stuck at the Atlantis base for the immediate future until they find out why the gate's energy emissions are interfering with the timer's calculations,” Arturo exclaimed, "This is extremely fascinating. 

"The physics implications alone would make for a study in and of it, but I shall not go into details for we need practical solutions to our problem, not more questions."

"What can possibly be exerting that magnitude of energy on the timer?" Quinn asked, a puzzled look furrowing the smooth line of his brow.

"I overheard our hosts talk about gates, and coordinates, and star-maps," Wade helpfully added, "At the risk of bringing up a tired cliché, 'I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.'"

"I don't think we're even in our own galaxy, Wade," Professor Arturo smiled trying to take the sting out of his words and give the young woman a reassuring smile at the same time.

"Well, there are worse places to be stuck, and we can spend the time getting the timer fixed, right?" Wade asked.

"Right you are," Quinn replied.

Conclusion

Mallory Quinn was having more than a few doubts regarding the Atlantis base personnel about that fact that his timer wouldn't function because of all the antimatter energy coming from the big circular and very heavy piece of technology that they referred to as the Star Gate. His group had traveled from one world to the next, to multiple parallel dimensions in the past without too much trouble. 

Even during the more harrowing slides when they had quite literally been on the run for their lives, the timer had worked with more than a little tinkering, and they had been able to slide. Quinn wonders if she should ask  
Professor Arturo to run the calculations once more just to be sure. 

She sighed and asked herself what the point would be; after all they’ve been over the calculations over a hundred times since they were told to stay put. 

Quinn figured if he's going to be honest with himself then this place is certainly fascinating and he can understand and even agree with the Professor about the relative merits of staying on at the Pegasus base. The only problem is he and his friends are trying to find their way home. Of late it has become an overriding goal:  
Because every time a slide took them to a place resembling home that they left behind so many jumps ago, there was more than likely something or someone getting in the way and bursting the bubble of their dream of reaching their proper home.

'Being stuck on a military base in a galaxy that isn't even remotely in the neighborhood of Earth that was isn't what Quinn would term an adequate alternative to reaching home.  
“However, it’s a damn sight better than nothing or even the places where they're either dead or even wanted felons”

Wade came forward and squeezed his forearm, and after a moment or two, her too her hand, “'It's usually a crap shoot anyway when it comes to having to deal with the consequences of our own actions or that of our counterparts in parallel worlds.' Quinn stated.

After all, he's had time to go over the pros and cons with his friends: Rembrant "Remy" Brown would like to stay. Wade Wells is torn, but she is curious to find out what other adventures they are likely to find or to find them in this new place. “I guess it’s worth sticking around a little while longer, and who know tomorrow is another day.”


End file.
